When people came out of the theatres after watching Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, they could only imagine one actor playing the role – Farhan Akhtar. Such was his performance that he won the Best Actor awards that year. But in a new revelation, director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has stated that Ranveer Singh had auditioned for that role, but the role went to Farhan because he found the latter’s approach appealing.

Mehra said in an interview, “Farhan came as an instinctive choice. His age was wrong – Farhan was 36, Milkha was 22. But I felt out of all the auditions I had seen he was the best. There were three people who stood out – one was a new actor called Nitish, one was Ranveer Singh, who was quite crazy and then Farhan.” The director also added, “For me Farhan worked the best because his response was silent. I could see it in his eyes. That was it. That was enough for me.”